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Restaurants
Chakra
City:
Paramus
County:
Bergen CountyPhone:
201.556.1530
Price:
$$$$
Cuisine:
New AmericanKey:
Full ReviewChakra
***144 State Route 4 East
Paramus
201.556.1530
chakrarestaurant.com
Chakra’s idea of romance—and it’s a pretty good one—involves a theatrically dark room with dramatically lit palms, chunky pillar candles gleaming in niches set within walls made of 120-year-old brick, and banquettes draped with gauzy silk curtains. Halogen spotlights are strategically poised above each table, making patrons feel a bit like stars in some sort of dining drama. The lights also assist when you’re scanning the menu.
Executive Chef Edward Lake has compiled an interesting, oft-changing menu of seasonal New American dishes. (Disregard the restaurant’s name, which conjures Indian fare.) Lake fuses an international roster of combinations and techniques with pristine, sometimes regional American products such as day-boat fish from the Shore, Cape Cod clams, and West Coast oysters and mushrooms.
Ah, the mushrooms. Lake offers an open-faced ravioli of the day, and we were fortunate to encounter the wild mushroom with shrimp in a silky, truffle-infused sauce that was a classic marriage of red wine and butter. How can this dish not be offered every day?
My entree of skate with peppery spinach paled beside the ravioli; normally I would have relished every bit of its tender, flaky white meat gently sautéed in butter. The meal had gotten off to a glorious start with complimentary crostini daubed with roasted red pepper jam and ricotta salata, not to mention one of the finest breadbaskets around. From there, we dove directly into a best-buy foie gras appetizer—$16 for a portion that doesn’t take a magnifying glass to find, gussied up with sassy mango and pink peppercorn salsa and batons of toasted walnut-cherry bread. Grilled baby octopus has almost become a cliché, but not when sparked by lime marinade, cilantro, and watercress. The sea babies were nestled among giant Peruvian lima beans—tasty bean pillows, really. Roasted plum tomatoes and carrots provided color.
Energy sparks the servers as well as the room. Except for two spacey Paris Hilton look-alike hostesses, the staff was vigilant but not obtrusive, and our server seemed to genuinely like the food. Chakra is also a bar and a lounge, complete with vigorous sound track. Only a thumping bass line and occasional drumbeat make it into the dining room, which is already noisy from all the hard surfaces.
It’s worth putting up with the clamor for the terrific desserts alone, chief among them house-made gelati and sorbet. We were only too happy to try the gelato trio of the day, and we never did decide which we liked best among banana, ricotta with chocolate chips, and vanilla orange. One of us opted for the cheese plate, which was all right but pedestrian in its choices of Gruyère, cabrales, and tommes.
Like the food, cocktails and wines are stylish and wide-ranging. Interesting wine choices include Hudson Valley tocai, Napa albariño and, for high rollers, vertical selections of Mondavi, Opus One, and Shafer.
